Eamonn Fitzmaurice believes a Munster final hangover was behind Cork's unexpected capitulation against Kildare.

Having pushed the Kingdom all the way in the drawn provincial decider before losing the replay on July 18th, the Rebels were sounded thrashed by Division Three opposition last Saturday:

"It isn't a huge surprise, because we knew it was one of the permutations that could come out of the game," the Kerry boss notes in The Irish Independent.

"Cork were flat, and Kildare were coming into the game with momentum, and we will have to be careful with that next weekend. Kildare played with fierce vibrancy and confidence. It was not that much of a surprise.

"Now, if Cork had played like they can play, and played the way they played against us the first day, you would have expected Cork to beat Kildare, but they did not reproduce that form on Saturday night, for whatever reason. The Munster Championship seemed to have taken a good bit out of them.

"First of all, the stat is there - it's hard to turn it around in a short space of time. Usually it's six days - Cork had seven days alright - but they obviously put a lot into the Munster Championship, and had placed a lot of store in beating Kerry in that Munster Championship. I think from that point of view there was definitely a hangover the following weekend.

"Having said that, if Conor Dorman's palm off the bar had gone in - there was a six-point swing there in two minutes - but it hit the crossbar. Niall Kelly went up and got a goal two minutes later, and it was effectively game over after that."

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